The Pistons will try and close out this five game west coat trip with a win against the Kings to make it three wins out of five games. This will be "Ron Ron`s" third game of the season and he has given his team a spark, also Kevin Martin is among the league leaders in scoring.

Ugly, depressing loss against a bad team tonight. With CB back in the lineup, the starters got off to a great start and led by 9 after the first quarter. The bench was pretty terrible in the 2nd quarter, but the lead at halftime was still 6. Then the third quarter was a complete disaster, nothing working on offense at all, including a 7 minute stretch where the Pistons didn't make a single field goal. They somehow took the lead briefly in the 4th again, but another collapse led to a comfortable win for the Kings. There really wasn't anything good about this game at all.

AJ an AA only positive guys in +/- tonight. flip murray was good late but sucked early and allowed udrih to get off, which set the tone for the rest of the night. everyone else played lazy and uninspired defense to go with extremely uninspired offense. i'm all for giving the bench minutes, but to shove all 5 of them out there in the 2nd quarter for an extended period of time is something you save for the preseason. regular season, give them 1 or 2 vets to play with...terrible substitution patterns tonight.

we got killed on the boards by the worst rebounding team in the league. i've had mikki moore and kevin martin on my fantasy team all year and they usually get 2-4 boards a game, tonight they got 9 and 8, respectively.

we mailed in the last game of our road trip. i wouldn't have minded if we finished 7-3, but 6-4 cannot be considered anything but a severe disappointment.

First of all, we should have had this game well in hand, but we could not make free throws. End of a long road trip? Whatever. The free throw shooting was atrocious.

The youth played plenty. Maxiell fouled out without playing all that many minutes. Both Samb and Amir got a few less minutes in the first half due to foul trouble, although either could have gotten more minutes in the 2nd half.

Billups was back, but certainly not all the way. He did not play in the 2nd quarter, and came in late in the 4th. He made some shots, but also missed quite a few, especially in the 2nd half. Should he have played at all?

Rip hit some shots early, but he did not hit much of anything in the 2nd half. Not much of a game from him in all.

Sheed was awesome inside tonight, hitting 8 of 10 at one point. It seemed strange he was kept out quite so long in the 4th quarter. Tay was on fire from outside most of the game. With him and Sheed scoring so well, yes, we should have won this one. Again, the free throws missed hurt us bad.

With Maxiell picking up two fouls quickly, Amir ended up playing most of the first quarter, and the Pistons had a double digit lead and were looking pretty darn good. Amir had a lot to do with that. Even though he was not let to take a shot, Sacramento was having a heck of a time contending with Amir, who was constantly around the basket. This was freeing up everyone else. Billups tried just once, and failed, to actually get Amir the ball. Amir was also very active on defense and on rebounding. Then Maxiell got in more foul trouble in the 3rd quarter, again early, and again Amir played much of that quarter. And the Pistons did just fine until Amir came out of the game.

Afflalo scored some, and played good solid D. Strangely though, Flip Saunders decided not to reward the guy with any further playing time. Instead, he actually played Prince at shooting guard. (Hayes at small forward, Billups at point)

Not to pick on Flip Murray but yes, the point guard play took a serious nose dive when Billups left the game after the first quarter. Flip Murray was not taking any shots, and he was not setting anyone else up either. The lead evaporated. However, playing with the starters for the most part, since Billups did not return in the 2nd, the Pistons with Flip did get a bit of a lead to head into halftime. Flip also played better in the 2nd half, getting inside some, finishing or making a good pass. Defensively though, like someone mentioned at Micro's place in their report, Flip may have been largely responsible for getting one of Sacramento's guards on fire with his lack of defense on him. In general, if Flip was in the game, our defense seemed to be lacking. On the other hand, its not like Billups or Rip were doing that great either on D. Afflalo played very good D, otherwise, the likes of Udrih (sp) and Martin scored way too easily and often.

Samb was the 2nd big off the bench tonight. Nothing spectacular. Maybe he got a bad call on what may have been a great block. But anyway, he certainly got some minutes in this game.

Mohammed got some offensive rebound putbacks. He did not play in the first half, but played extensively in the 2nd. I can't say he did all that bad in this game, but missing 4 of 4 at the line did not help us any. He joined a long list of Pistons who did bad at the line tonight.

Well, its getting close to the return of Stuckey. No, that is not as important as it seems. Why? In this game, Prince played guard quite a bit in the 4th. He could have played point instead of shooting guard. Prince actually played backup point for us in a few games already. Why is Flip Saunders insisting on using Flip Murray at point? It ain't to win games.

Amir can play small forward. Hayes in turn can play power forward, just like he did tonight after all the foul trouble on our front line. Which means Tay is free to play point, if Saunders chooses to try to win a game. Now hey, I won't say this game was lost because of the point guard choice by Saunders, cause obviously, the poor free throw shooting was a huge factor in this loss. But choosing not to use Prince at point certainly does not help the cause any.

Well, a couple of losses, but at least the young guys played well, and they played quite a few minutes. Still, no trust shown in the 4th quarter for guys like Afflalo and Amir who showed a lot in this game, just like last game. Lets all hope the trend continues to play the youngsters, and that Flip Saunders does not decide to blame these losses on the young guys playing. GO PISTONS!!!!!

With Maxiell picking up two fouls quickly, Amir ended up playing most of the first quarter, and the Pistons had a double digit lead and were looking pretty darn good. Amir had a lot to do with that. Even though he was not let to take a shot, Sacramento was having a heck of a time contending with Amir, who was constantly around the basket. This was freeing up everyone else. Billups tried just once, and failed, to actually get Amir the ball. Amir was also very active on defense and on rebounding. Then Maxiell got in more foul trouble in the 3rd quarter, again early, and again Amir played much of that quarter. And the Pistons did just fine until Amir came out of the game.

Afflalo scored some, and played good solid D. Strangely though, Flip Saunders decided not to reward the guy with any further playing time. Instead, he actually played Prince at shooting guard. (Hayes at small forward, Billups at point)

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I wonder if Flip will ever realize the defensive impact that AJ, and AA have. It seems like we have too many offensive players (or too many players not interested in playing defense). Sheed is the only one that seems to try. Maybe that's why we were so successful with AA in the starting lineup.

I just don't see many positives in this game. We had them early (agree) and then couldn't get anything going with either the first or second team.

We were outrebounded by them. Amir was banging inside but I didn't see great results--maybe I missed it. And worrisome, is that he is not showing offense. Yes, I will wait and see but no offense so far... Samb looked a lot slower than Friday and was getting pushed around some. We know that Nazi has not been the answer so I am concerned about our front line. Maxiel has been inconsistent with flashes of brillance.

I agree that Tay should handle the ball more and not Murray. Still, late in the 4th, Murray was penetrating that pourous Sac. defense and Flip pulled him for Chauncey.

Yes, Sheed did well inside and Tay hit shots. But I didn't see great defense by either.

We need to re-group at home. We are playing well below a quality team right now. We just played 5 poor teams. Its early...

There was a 5 minute period in the 2nd or 3rd where Rasheed just stood around and did nothing. Even the announcers said something about him not having to move to get a rebound that came to him, but before and after that I was already watching him either dog it, give up, or be lost.

Even the last couple of games, Tay has looked a little sleepy out there at times.